NOTE: This animation attempts to relate the possible orbits
of Struve 2398 AB (and their tiny habitable zones) to their common
center of mass. To enlarge the display, the orbits have been
arbitrarily rotated by 45 degrees. Although the initial display
shows the system's actual orbital tilt (at an inclination of 66.0°)
from the visual perspective of an observer on Earth, the orbital
inclination of any planet that may be discovered someday around
either star would likely be different from those of the habitable
zone orbits depicted here.

Although the star and its stellar companion B are known
to have an eccentric orbit, the specific orbital elements may
still be uncertain. In 1958, Wilhelm F. Rabe (1893-1958) derived a
period of 346 years with an average distance of 42 AUs (based on
updated parallax) and an eccentricity of 0.55, so that the stars
swing between 19.0 and 65.3 AUs apart. Using photographic plates from
1918 to 1987, however,
(Wulff
D. Heintz,
1987)
subsequently calculated a period of 408 years with an
eccentricity of 0.53, and an average distance of 56 AUs where the pair
swings between 26 and 86 AUs apart.